Gender Pay Gap Reporting

Optimum are an employer required by law to carry out Gender Pay Reporting under the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017.

The process involves carrying out six calculations that show the difference between the average earnings of men and women in our organisation; it does not involve publishing individual employees data. We are required to publish the results on our own website and a government website. We will do this within one calendar year of April 5th. The results published are from the period 1st April 2016 to 31st March 2017.

We use these results to assess: • the levels of gender equality in our workplace • the balance of male and female employees at different levels • how effectively talent is being maximised and rewarded

Gender Pay Reporting requires our organisation to make calculations based on employee gender. We establish this by using our existing HR and payroll records. All employees can confirm and update their records if they choose to by contacting Amanda Sadler, People Team Director.

The challenge in any organisation is to eliminate any gender pay gap, where a gap is identified. If it is necessary to tackle our gender pay gap, further details will become available by speaking to the People Team.

The engineering industry continues to be perceived as a predominately male dominated sector. Therefore, by default, few women have a tendancy to select this as a career choice compared to men. As an industry, not only are companies proactively encouraging females to choose this as a viable career option but the education system through the STEM initiative is encouraging students to specialise in related subjects i.e. science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The gender pay gap data published this year consist of statistics for 302 men and 42 women. The majority of women within our company are based in administrative positions. Therefore, by default, this indicates an average annual salary for men at £40,231 and women at £32,023.

Pay and Bonus Gap – The difference between men and women

Mean Median Hourly fixed pay 16% 17% Bonus paid 45% 0%

There are specific roles within Optimum that attract a discretional bonus element. These roles are such that the position requires individuals to achieve outcomes linked to operational and strategic targets i.e. securing new business, retaining contract renewals and senior management positions. The above figures show our overall mean and median gender pay gap based on hourly rates of pay at the snapshot date (5th April 2017).

It also captures the mean and median difference between bonuses paid to men and women at Optimum. The proportion of colleagues awarded a bonus for 2016 were 13% male and 7% females. Interestingly, the median for male and female bonus is 0%.

Furthermore, it is nationally recognised that there is a severe skills shortage of national building maintenance services incorporating mechanical, electrical, building and specialist fabric and public health maintenance services within the UK. Consequently our salaries reflect a fiercely competitive rate for experience and expertise. For several years Optimum has continued to offer an Apprentice programme to encourage growth and succession planning within the industry. We are especially keen to encourage women apprentices and clearly state on our website that we would be delighted to arrange work experience to give an insight into what an engineering apprenticeship involves.

Optimum is proud to have high levels of staff retention that we believe is a direct reflection of the way we value our employees as individuals, listen to them carefully and train them well. We are a fast growing company where skills, knowledge and commitment are recognised and rewarded.

You can learn more about Gender Pay Reporting by visiting www.acas.org.uk/genderpay or by contacting Amanda Sadler, People Team Director.

To view the pay range in quartiles for Males and Females, please click on the link below;